Well, I didn't vote, and I did do something useful:)
And yes I've been around here long enough to be aware that/. is American. That doesn't mean it has to be American-centric. There are Nerds and Stuff in the rest of the World you know? Or maybe you don't!

Slashdot seems to be very U.S.-centric. Do you have any plans to be more international in your scope?

Slashdot is U.S.-centric. We readily admit this, and really don't see it as a problem. Slashdot is run by Americans, after all, and the vast majority of our readership is in the U.S. We're certainly not opposed to doing more international stories, but we don't have any formal plans for making that happen. All we can really tell you is that if you're outside the U.S. and you have news, submit it, and if it looks interesting, we'll post it.

Dunno why they removed that particular FAQ entry, because it's still obviously true.

Children don't however understand that there are such differences between the US and Australia. so this year I will give candy to the children, or scare them to death, I haven't yet made up my mind about it yet.

Then they should learn there is a difference early on in life. There is more than enough seepage of american culture through television already, we certainly don't need to encourage any more of it. If we tried to adopt every tradition from every country everyone would be on a constant holiday and be stark raving mad to boot.

Isn't the whole point of a "tradition" to keep on doing what your people used to do for a long time? As opposed to not trying to emulate other people. There a a lot of queer traditions around the world. Some funny, some rather strange, like downhill cheese running, tomato throwing, bull running, spoon throwing, pumpkin carving and a lot more. Wouldn't it be really boring if everybody did the same stuff?

Lucky you. We Americans are required to follow Australian traditions, or at least those that are shown (or invented!) for television and movies. For example, we all have to chuckle and say "That's not a knife. That's a knife," whenever someone pulls a knife on us. And of course we all drink Fosters beer, because that's the same exact beer all you people drink and regard as your favorite beer, totally representative of the region's crafts. And we wear your cool hats, which we secretly genuinely admire ra

There will be no trick or treaters, or at least if there is, I won't know. I won't be home. I'll be out having fun at a show or other such event. The following day is my birthday, so it goes without saying that Halloween is one of my favorite and most enjoyed holiday.

Hallowe'en doesn't bring out trick or treaters where I live (Sydney) except in very small numbers and I've always thought that the idea was to give those who come knocking either a treat or a trick. That sounds like much more fun than what it turns out is little more than extortion.

Think about it, trick versus trick and you get to choose and prepare the battleground. Trip wires just before buckets of poo covered by gladwrap. Night vision goggles and paintball guns. Stinging nettles and poison ivy. Spider

I've always thought that the idea was to give those who come knocking either a treat or a trick.

You're misunderstanding the options. "Trick or treat" is similar to the Mexican "Plata o plomo" deal (give us silver or we'll give you lead (ie shoot you)). It's not "give us a treat or give us a trick". It's "give us a treat, or we'll vandalize your property"

Actually, I have no idea. The Aussies sure don't seem to like Halloween, though.

In fact, I'm surprised by the bitterness, it really is one of my favorite holidays - good for kids and adults, none of the pseudo-preachiness of a religious holiday, and the parties often involve people dressing up as vampires or "naughty nurses". Maybe there was some pumpkin-related national disaster I don't know about.

A few days later in Victoria we have Melbourne Cup Day, the race that stops a nation (or so it's known), which is an excuse to sit around, have a few select beverages, kick back in the probable sunshine (early November it could be hail or scorching), put a few bets on the nags, have a BBQ if not at the actual race course.

The whole spring racing carnival and cup week is a holiday of sorts in Melbourne. You see people dress in all manner of clothes, from cocktail dresses and morning suits through to gorillas

Doesn't hurt that my brother's birthday is on Halloween so we always had an especially good party growing up. Or that my Dad the veterinarian would open the door to the trick or treating kids with an 8 foot boa constrictor around his neck.

I used to rig ghosts on fishing-line zip-lines (invisible in the dark) so they'd swoop in at high velocity when they were walking back down the driveway. Lots of loooong waits for the right moment, but the few times I got it right they would hear something fluttering up behind them; they absolutely piss themselves in terror when they turn and see this THING coming at them at tens of meters per second and fly just over their heads.

I did exactly this one year back when I was in my late teens (too old to trick or treat, but young enough to have fun still). Sitting on the roof all night was fun, and those moments when you get it right and scare the crap out of them make it all worth it. People simply do not generally look up....

I would wear a cup and body armor (ie: from martial arts), then put on baggy clothes and stuff my clothing with newspaper and straw so I look like those makeshift "scary" people props a lot of people leave out in the burbs. I think have the candy bowl not too far away. Kids will debate if it's a person or not. Some little shits even kicked me HARD a couple times (hence the cup). When they are convinced I'm not alive, I wait until they are just close enough, then JUMP at the lot. I've even had parents runnin

1) I live in a rural area - people rarely see this area2) We have three German Shepherds. Assuming you can find 1) Someone coming to this area, and 2) Someone Spanish doing 'trick or treat', I think they would do nothing to my house:-)

I live on a steep hill and kids are too lazy to walk up my driveway. I grew up in the neighborhood and trick-or-treated the house back when someone else owned it. It's not any steeper now than it was then.

In our new house, I'm told by the previous owner to expect about 12 kids, tops. So I'll probably get decent sized candy and non-candy stuff for those who show up.

At the previous residence, we had to economize with "fun" size items. We had 210 trick-or-treaters -- not counting the grown-ups that escorted the little kids -- before running out of stuff and finally having to turn out the lights. To our surprise, the mini play-doh cans went quickly, even with good candy still in the baskets.

Letting the children inside to drink beersRazor blades hidden in Three MusketeersScreams from the basement of kids begging to be set freeThat's what Halloween means to me

Tightening the clamps that are holdingtheir little heads so tightPutting my lips to their earsas I whisper please don't fightI promise to you go homeif you swear not to tell a soulWell I'll just untie theseI'm kidding, now where is my hacksaw*? Let's rock and roll!

Why is fruit lumped in with religious pamphlets and other non-candy?
Kids who come to our house will get a mix of stuff (fruits, nuts, candies). They most definitely will not get any religious pamphlets, not even those espousing the avoidance of religion.

"Eat fruit instead of candies." is a typical excretion of the unholy Healthy-Diet-Religion. Damn hippies. If it was customary to offer meat on Halloween, they'd probably replace it with veggies.
Hmm, maybe I should offer some meat "candy" this time, to promote my Carnivorous Cult?

Further to the parent poster's point, I had read an article somewhere online (thus making me an implacable authority figure on the subject...) which stated that consuming the sugars in fruits along with the fiber slowed digestion of the sugars as the stomach is forced to break down the fibers in order to absorb the sugar. This helps to prevent the high-low fluctuation in blood sugar which leads to unhealthy food choices and overconsumption during low periods. The article claimed that processed sugars and fr

Sucrose is not a simple sugar (it's a glucose joined with a fructose). Most plants do not contain sucrose. Fruits are high in fructose, while grains are high in glucose. To make high fructose corn syrup, they remove part of the glucose in corn-syrup to get it to a 50/50 mixture so that it will taste more like sucrose, though it does taste a bit sweeter. None of these things are chemically altered in any way when the remove them from their plant based sources and put them into processed foods. However, they remove many other nutrients, as well as fiber, from the plants during this process. That is why processed foods aren't as nutritious. The sugar is the same.

Let's face it, many folks with strong beliefs have this "beleive the way I do or you're damned!"

It's all about their pathetic little egos. Sure, they'll wrap it up with some rationalization like, "It's to keep you healthy!" or "It's to save your soul!" but in the end, the more folks who believe the way they do, the more comfortable that they are "right".

Let's put it this way, if you truly know that you are right, you STFU knowing that the truth will show itself. Example, eating too much animal products do have some negative effects on one's health. That's why moderation is important. Go cold turkey (pun accidental)? That's more of a personal value judgement than one backed by data - although, I have seen some compelling data that doesn't make the Vegan crowd look so kooky.

As far as the religous example goes, if you have to proselytize then you don't truly believe.

A Buddhist once explained to me why they don't proselytize. "We work on changing ourselves and as we become less angry, attached, more calm, and happier, and if someone asks us "what has changed?" then we tell them about our Buddhist practice.

That explains why they aren't such pains in the asses like the Mormons, Jehova's, and every other Christian cult that insists on annoying me at home.

It's all about their pathetic little egos. Sure, they'll wrap it up with some rationalization like, "It's to keep you healthy!" or "It's to save your soul!" but in the end, the more folks who believe the way they do, the more comfortable that they are "right".

Michael Grant (a classicist) states that "In recent years, 'no serious scholar has ventured to postulate the non historicity of Jesus' or at any rate very few, and they have not succeeded in disposing of the much stronger, indeed very abundant, evidence to the contrary." in Jesus: An Historian's Review of the Gospels by Micjhael Grant 2004 ISBN 1898799881 page 200

Richard A. Burridge states: "There are those who argue that Jesus is a figment of the Church’s imagination, that there never was a Jesus at all. I have to say that I do not know any respectable critical scholar who says that any more." in Jesus Now and Then by Richard A. Burridge and Graham Gould (Apr 1, 2004) ISBN 0802809774 page 34

James D. G. Dunn "Paul's understanding of the death of Jesus" in Sacrifice and Redemption edited by S. W. Sykes (Dec 3, 2007) Cambridge University Press ISBN 052104460X pages 35-36 states that the theories of non-existence of Jesus are "a thoroughly dead thesis"

Not believing, or not even taking the time to look at some writings on the subject, is the easy answer. It is the equivalent of sticking your fingers in your ears and singing the Flintsones theme. Even to a casual historian, something pretty strange happened 2000-ish years ago.

No. They agree there was a man named Jesus who acquired a cult following of mostly illiterate, superstitious people who lived over 2000 years ago. Basically nothing more spectacular than the David Copperfield or L. Ron Hubbard of his time, except more people were gullible back then. Pretty much everything ancient people thought they saw of trolls and goblins and nymphs and mares and yetis and the Loch Ness monster is bogus. Everyone they thought used magic like witches and wizards and warlocks and sorcerers is bogus. But Jesus, yep they sure got that one right - undoubtedly divine power in action, no way to pull a fast one on them.

It wasn't something very strange at all, it's something that happens at least once or twice per decade on average. And on average roughly once every roughly 100 years, that thing then results in thousands of believers. About once in 400 years or so you get millions of believers.

Well, I am Buddhist, and live in a zendo so it's fairly likely that many of the people who stop by to trick or treat might even figure it out. (A surprisingly number of people don't - there is a sign, albeit small, and a buddha on the porch.)

We don't in fact hand out candy - kind of a long story, but partly it's our own stances on nutrition, partly it's that most candy that's packaged for handing out on Halloween is pretty lousy candy. OTOH, we don't want to be the downers on the block - so we're handing out glow bracelets and multi-colored led glowies (think throwies but with a pin instead of a magnet, and a more interesting led). Last year we only had bracelets - and in 35 minutes went through 200 of them.

It's lumped in with it because they're all examples of things kids don't generally want. We all HATED the houses that give you crap like this. I remember one house used to give out nickles or pennies. Gee thanks.. I can't even BUY a candy bar with that. Promoting your own ideas of what's nutrition or proper halloween behaviour is really against the spirit of the holiday.

We throw snowballs down to the ones who do, so at least they get something.

Is that something they want? A friend who'd seen some in an American movie asked me to bring some back when I visited the US. We opened them at a house party, and between about 25 people we only managed to eat half of one of them.

Clearing up afterwards, we wondered if we should put them with the compostable waste, or for landfill.

Like many thing, it goes back to childhood experiences. AS a child, yes, they want them. They are big and soft and tasty.. to kids.

If you don't have a childhood emotional attachment, I can't imagine an adult enjoying them. I like them, and that's why. Don't get me wrong, I don't eat them any more, cause I changed my diet a few years ago.

ALL CAKE (even insufferably smug organic cake is made up of nothing but chemicals.

The common informal definition of "chemical" in this context is a processed food ingredient, and it's obvious that that's the meaning I was using. A chemist would say "substance" if they wanted your/geekoid's meaning.

Being pedantic and obtuse about the meaning of words makes for a crap debate.

(That's "crap" as in "poor", and that's "poor" as in "not worthwhile".)

You know by acting that way you're creating a situation you obviously hate - sitting in a dark, silent room hoping nobody rings your doorbell. Fuck that. Buy a bowl of sweets & a gorilla mask & have some fun when the Trick or Treaters come - RAAAAaaaar! - you'll end up looking forward to the doorbell ringing instead of dreading it. And after it's over - hey, you still have a gorilla mask! Everybody wins. Were you never a kid?

I take the approach of the younger you are the more you get. The little 3-6 year olds get a whole giant handful and as they get older the amount goes down until they are about 12 when they get 1. Once I stop seeing the little kids I shut off the light as at that point all you are going to get are teenagers. About the only time I give a teenager a reasonable amount is if they are carting their younger siblings around. It is fun to see the little kids eyes bug out when they get that giant handful. I also like

I give the teenagers a lecture about being beggars. The little kids are entertainers, costumes and all. But once they are too cool for costumes they are just beggars.

I then hand them a roll of toilet paper each. Now they are extortionists, like Tony Soprano. Much better. I point out that if they use the TP on my trees they will be back to being beggars. They do have permission to TP my trees (hoping they are normal kids and will TP trees they don't have permission to).

I will occasionally teach a borderline case how to throw TP so it unravels in flight.